New Glenn explodes
Origin Blue
Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn rocket has successfully launched and reached orbit, although engineers were unable to land the first-stage booster on Earth as expected. Still, the company’s first launch into orbit is a sign that Jeff Bezos’ space company is capable of challenging the current dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the private space launch business.
“I am incredibly proud that New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” said Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin. in a statement.
New Glenn, which is about the height of a 30-story building, blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at around 02:00 (07:00 GMT). The rocket suffered numerous delays and setbacks, and a previous launch was aborted when unwanted ice formed in some of the rocket’s engine tubes.
About 13 minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage reached orbit, Blue Origin’s goal since the company was founded more than 20 years ago. It carried a test payload called the Blue Ring Pathfinder, which is a collection of communications devices, power systems and flight computers.
Another goal of this mission was to land its rocket booster on a floating landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean so that it could be reused for future missions, reducing overall costs. However, the engineers stopped receiving data from the booster shortly after liftoff. “We knew our booster landing… on the first attempt was an ambitious goal. We will learn a lot from today and we will try again in the next presentation in the spring”, said Limpe.
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